Not to be mistaken with the coconut pastry called macaroon, the Paris macaron, spelled with a single o, also called the Gerbet in yesteryears, traces its roots in Italy and reportedly arrived in France with Catherine de Medicis, in 1533, to marry the Duc d’Orleans, who later became King Henry II

image by roboppy

Credit goes to the Ladurée family for popularizing the macarons. In 1862, Louis Ernest Ladurée, a miller and an outspoken social reformist, put up the Ladurée bakery on the elegant 16 rue Royale in Paris. Following a fire during the Paris Commune uprising in 1871, the bakery was transformed into a pastry shop. At the beginning of the 20th century, Louis Ernest’s second cousin, Pierre Desfontaines, put color and joined two macaron shells with a delicious ganache center. He also created the idea of putting a tea salon at the pastry shop to cater to women, who at that time were not a welcome sight in cafés.

Ladurée (pronounced lah-dew-ray), who has set the trend for upscale tea salons, reached new heights via Sofia Coppola’s film Marie Antoinette, in which eye-catching pastries were provided by Maison Ladurée. In 1993, the Groupe Holder took over Ladurée and expanded to a few other locations in Paris. By 2005, Ladurée has expanded beyond France. First to London, then to Monaco, Switzerland, Japan, Italy, Lebanon, Turkey, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Luxembourg, Kuwait, Ireland, Brazil and Dubai.

And the fashionable Madison Avenue. People line up for the $2.70 per piece macarons. Watch a scene on Gossip Girl…

An eyeful…

A girl thing, Alexa dreams of Paris all the time. As Cynthia Rowley and Ilene Rosenzweig wrote in Chapter 9 (Indulge) of Swell A Girl’s Guide to the Good Life, “The best things in life are expensive.” Yeah, at least some like macarons:)

wearing her dream:)

The other big names in the macaron business:

There’s Pierre Hermé, a celebrated French pastry chef, who has a loyal following raving about his macarons.